The TesSeRact CXL User Interface Development System Installation and User's Guide Version 5.51 -- October 1, 1990 Copyright 1990, Innovative Data Concepts All Rights Reserved Innovative Data Concepts 1657 The Fairways Suite 101 Jenkintown, PA 19046 Voice: 1-215-884-3373 Orders: 1-800-926-4551 FAX: 1-215-886-4225 TCXL is part of IDC's TesSeRact Development Tools series of programmer's products. General Information The TCXL library is intended to be a supplement to your C compiler's standard run-time library. It contains over 375 multi-purpose functions which provide a variety of capabilities. It is available for several popular C compilers including Microsoft C, QuickC, Turbo C/C++, and Zortech C/C++. These routines were written in highly-optimized C and assembler code ensuring maximum program speed, minimum program size, easy modification, and increased portability. Features Overview o Custmized Bar Menus. You can easily create pop-up, pull-down, and Lotus-style menus, as well as any other custom menu that you can define. Features full mouse support, nonselectable items, global hot keys, and more. o Multi-Field Formatted Data Entry. You can create data entry forms that consist of one or more input fields. You have full control over user input and can tie validation functions into each input field. Features alpha and numeric justification, capitalization conversion, formatting characters, and a large assortment of editing keys. You may also tie each field to a hot-key, and move between fields using a mouse. o Context-Sensitive Help. Help files are indexed for speed and categories can be cross- referenced. Help can be applied at the global, window, menu item, and input field levels. o Powerful Selection Capabilities. TCXL has scrollable pick menus, that allow you to pick one item from a list of items. Features full mouse support and scroll bars. There is also a dedicated file picker that uses this feature to let you pick from a list of files, very similar to the way that the Turbo C and QuickC environments' file pickers work, and a built-in video attribute selector. o Full-Featured Window Control Allows as many open windows as memory permits. Windows can be stacked, tiled, shadowed, moved, resized, and changed in many other ways. There are more than 75 functions designed to handle windowed output. o User-defined Input Features TCXL's Input System provides a consistent interface between the hardware-dependent input devices and TCXL's output systems. This system features both formatted and unformatted user input, with varying levels of output control. o Hardware-Independent Display Control By separating the display from the video hardware, TCXL allows the programmer direct control of the display without device dependence. TCXL comes with several output methods built-in, including direct screen writing, direct screen writing with CGA snow elimination, and video BIOS writes. Support for the DESQview/Windows/TopView interface is automatic when writing direct to the video buffer areas. o Nonstandard Video Sizes EGA 43 and VGA 50-line modes are fully supported and TCXL provides functions to directly change to and from these modes. TCXL's video functions are also compatible with nonstandard modes such as 132x25 and 120x43. o Advanced String Manipulation There are nearly 40 string manipulation functions that perform searching, replacing, formatting, conversion, rotating, shifting, pattern matching, and other string operations. o Automatic Mouse Support If you write your program using TCXL, the mouse will automatically be enabled in Menus, Entry Forms and Selection lists. No programmer knowledge or manipulation of mice is necessary! For those whose applications require more direct mouse control, TCXL can have button-presses translated into keystrokes and movements into arrow keys. Low-level functions are provided for directly manipulating Microsoft-compatible mice, and TCXL supports both two and three-button mice. o Keyboard Management Allows both high and low-level control over the keyboard. There are function for manipulating the internal input queue, as well as for manipulating the BIOS hardware options. o Expanded/Extended Memory TCXL has a full set of routines for accessing Expanded Memory through tre EMS specification, and for accessing Extended Memory through the XMS specification. TCXL will also regognize the presence of advanced memory management schemes such as VCPI and DPMI.